The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-11

zen Grant to the trade of war. [Applause !
Inns Is not random statement; it is a fec
and easily demonstrable ] lave at home
book called Modern English Literature, its
Blemishes and Defects, by Henry H. Breen
+. 5. A, a countrynlan of Mr.. Arnold. In
1t L lind examples of bad grammar ana
sovenly English from the pens of Sydney
Smith, Sheridan, Hallaln, Whateley,
Carlyle, both Disraels, Allison, Juuius,.
Blair, Macaulay, Shakespeare, Milton, Glib
bon, Southey, Bulwer, Cobbett Dr. Samuel
johnson, Trench, Lamb, Lander, Srnollet,
Walpole, Walker (of the dictionary, Christ
opher North, Kirke White, Mrs. Sigourney,
Benjamin Franklin, Walter Scott and Mr..
Llndley Murray who made the grammar
In Mr.. ArnoldS paper on Gen. Grants
book we find couple of grammatical crimes
and more than several examples Of very
crude and solovenly English-enough OF
them to easily entitle him to lofty place IN
tnat lllqstrious list of delinquents just
named. The following passage, all by itself,
ought to elect him: ''Meade suggested to
Grant that he might wish to have immedi-
ately under him Sherman, who had been
serving with Grant in the West. He begged
nm not to hesitate if he thought it for the
good of the service. Grant assured him that
he had not thought of removing him, and
IN his memoirs, after relating what had
passed, he adds, etc. To read that passage
.
to read it four times would make him drunk
IGreat laughter.l Gen. Grants grammar is
as good as anybody's; but if this were not SO,
Mr.. Breen would brush that inconsequential
fact aside and hunt his great book for far
higher game Mr. Breen makes this dis
terminating remark: 'To suppose that be-
cause man is a poet or a historian he must
be corrected in his grammar is to suppose
that an architect must be a joiner or a
physician or compounder of medicines
Mr.. Breen's point is well taken. If you should
climb the mighty Matterhorn to look out
over the kingdoms of the earth it might be
a pleasant incident to find Strawberries up
there; but great Scott, you don't climb the
Matterhorn for Strawberries Continued
applausel don't think Mr.. Arnold was
quite wise, for he well knew that that Briton
or American was never yet born who could
safely assault another mans English He
knew as well as he knows nothing that the
man never lived whose English was f1awless
Can you believe that Mr.. Arnold was i'm
modest enough to imagine himself an ex-
ception to this cast-iron rule, the sole ex-
ception discoverable within the three or four
centuries during which the English language
proper has been in existence! No., Mr..
Arnold did not imagine that He merely
forgot that for a moment he was moving
INTO glass house, and he had hardly got
fairly in before Gen. Fry was shivering the
panes over his head. Laughter
People may hunt out what microscopic
notes they please; but, after all, the fact
remains and cannot be dislodged that Grants
book is a great and in its peculiar depart
ment unique) and unapproachable literary
masterpiece. In their line there is no higher
literature than those modest, simple
Memoirs" Their style is at least fiawless,
and no man can improve upon it; and great
books are weighed and measured by their
style and matter, not by the trimmings and
standings of their grammar. There is that
about the sun which makes us forget his
spots; and when we think of Gen. Grant
our pulses quicken and his grammar van
ishes; we only remember that this is the
simple soldier who, all untaught of the
silken phrasemakers, linked words together
with an art surprising the art of the schools,
and put into them q something which will
still bring to American ears as long as
American shall last the roll of his vanished
drums and the tread of his marching hosts.
[Tumulutuous applause.1 What do we care
for grammar when we think of the man
that put together that thunderous phrase:
Unconditional and immediate surrender"
And those others: 81 propose to move
Immediately upon your works." II propose
to fight it out on this line if it takes all sum-
mer." EApplause. Mr.. Arnold would doubt
less claim that that last sentence is not
strictly grammatical, and yet, nevertheless,
it did certainly wake up this nation as
100,000,000 tons of Al fourth proof, hard
boiled hide-bound grammar from another
mouth couldn't have DONE And finally we
have that gentler phrase; that one which
shows you another true side of the man;
shows that in his soldier heart there was
room for other than CORY war notices, and
in his tongue the gift to fifty phrase them:
LET us have peace" prolonged applause
and cheers